Gas holder lubricating device



May 12, 1942. D. 1.. NEWKIRK GAS HOLDER LUBRICATING DEVICE Filed Oct. 4, 1940 INVENTOF flh mz ATT 081V! Y Patented May 12, 1942 GAS HOLDER LUBEICATING DEVICE Daniel L. Newkirk, Dearborn, Mich, assignor to Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Mich, a corporation of Delaware Application October 4, 1940, Serial No. 359,666

l Claims.

into general use. In the newer constructions the cylindrical shell is stationary and a diaphragm or piston is reciprocally mounted within the shell to slide up and down. The diaphragm floats upon the gas therebeneath to vary the volume of the gas chamber.

In the older type of gas holders the hydraulic seals had to be maintained at a temperature above freezing, and as these seals were exposed at several elevations around the outside of the tank,

a great amount of heat was required to prevent freezing of the seals. Furthermore, such tanks were more expensive to produce because of the rather costly framework required to guide the floating cylinders up and down and to resist the wind load on these cylinders.

Although the initial cost of the newer type gas holders is considerably less than that of the older type, they have certain disadvantages, the principal one being the difficulty in maintaining the seal gas-tight between the diaphragm and the holding cylinder. Several types of such seals are in general use. One of such seals comprises a chamber filled with liquid tar which. extends around the entire periphery of the diaphragm,

the tar sealing the edge of the diaphragm with the sides of the cylinder. Another type of such seal consists of packing material which is pressed outwardly against the drum and which extends around the edge of the diaphragm. With this type of seal the packing material must be lubricated to retain its effectiveness. .In spite of the advantages of the floating diaphragm, gas holders equipped with either of these seals give considerable trouble in the winter-time due to I In the commercial production of illuminating gas, the gas is cooled and most of the water vapor is extracted therefrom before it is conducted to the gas holder. However, in extremely cold weatherthe relative humidity of the gas after it is in the holder increases to the point that condensation forms on the inside walls of the tank. This condensation freezes to form a coating of ice. The accumulation of ice thus formed is not deposited uniformly around the tank but prin cipally at the points where the wind hits the outside walls. For this reason, a very uneven accumulation of ice is usually formed. Due to the unevenness of the ice, the packing material is forced to ride over the thick accumulations, thereby leaving valleys which the'paoking' material cannot seal and which permit the rapid escape 'of gas from the tank.

One object of this invention is to provide a device which will prevent the formation of ice Vi upon the tank so that the packing seal will be effective at all times. To accomplish this I provlde a lubricating system which supplies glycerine and water to the inside walls of the tank in the proportions required to remain liquid at the lowest possible temperature. A mixture of 60 per cent glycerine and 40 per cent water has the lowest freezing temperature of any glycerine and 7 water mixture, a higher percentage of glycerine or a higher percentage of water resulting in a mixture having a higher freezing temperature. It is, therefore, the object of this invention to provide means for controlling the percentage of water in the glycerine supplied to the inside tank walls so that a coating having the lowest possible freezing temperature will at all times be present upon the walls. This is particularly diflicult to accomplish with gas holders because the water of condensation mixes with the glycerine film under certain conditions, while under other conditions very little, if any, water of condensation is added. With my device mixtures of various percentages of glycerine can be conveniently applied to the accumulator to thereby maintain the resulting film at the lowest possible freezing temperature.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the arrangement, construction and combination of the various parts of my improved device, as described in this specification, claimed in my claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a vertical central sectional View through a gas holder having my improved lubricating device installed thereon. I

Figure 2 is a sectional View taken upon the line 2 2 of Figure 1. I

' Figure 3 is a sectional View taken upon the line 3-3 of ,Figure 2, the section being taken at the upper part of the tank.

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken upon the line 33 of Figure 2 but at the intermediate portion of the tank, showing the sealing means at the edge of the diaphragm, and

Figure is a sectional view through a mixing tank, showing the agitating motor and the pump used to conduct the mixture from the tank up to the lubricating device.

Referring to the drawing, I have used the reference numeral H] to indicate a gas holder cylinder. This cylinder is supported upon footings II and is provided with a roof l2. I-beams |3 extend upwardly at spaced intervals around the tank, these I-beams extending from the footings up to the top of the tank. A catwalk I4 is provided around the outside of the tank near the top thereof.

A diaphragm I5 is reciprocally mounted in the cylinder III, the edge of which is shown in detail in Figure 4. From this view it will be seen that brackets I6 are provided at spaced intervals around the edge of the diaphragm upon which weighted arms I! are pivotally mounted. A series of packing supporting plates |8 is provided around the periphery of the diaphragm, there preferably being one packing plate for each pair of arms IT. A pair of continuous packing strips H! is mounted around the exterior face of the annulus of plates I8, which packing strips extend from the plate to the inside wall of the cylinder. A flexible sealing strip extends between the outer edge of the diaphragm l5 and the lower edges of the plates I8 to complete the seal.

The arrangement so far described is conventional, and my improvements relate to means for lubricating the packing strips [9 so that the diaphragm may freely slide up and down inside of the cylinder H). In order to lubricate the packing material, I have provided means for introducing an annulus of very small streams of oil and glycerine around the upper portion of the cylinder l0, these streams flowing downwardly and spreading outwardly until they join to form a continuous film a short distance below the roof of the tank. This means comprises a tubular header 2| which extends completely around the upper portion of the tank and which is connected to a riser 22 which extends from the base of the tank up to the header. The riser 22 is connected to a motor-driven pump 23 which draws fluid from a tank 24 to keep the fluid in the header under pressure.

At intervals of about every five feet around the cylinder I0, I have provided valves 25 which are connected through suitable tubes with individual containers 26. Each container 26 has a capacity of about one quart and is supported upon the catwalk M by a column 21. Each container 26 drains into a tube 28 through a conventional sight-feed oiler jet 29. The jets 29 are adjusted to supply oil, drop by drop, to their respective tubes 28, which tubes extend through the wall of the cylinder It) so that the liquid from the containers 26 is deposited on the inside surface of the cylinder in very small streams. In the gas holder shown, 126 containers are required, but as these are all duplicates of the installation shown in Figure 3, only one has been illustrated in detail.

From the foregoing it would seem that the fluid is supplied from the tank 24 by the pump 23 under pressure to the riser 22, which riser conducts the fluid to the header 2|. When it is desired to lubricate the tank, an operator walks around the catwalk l4 and successively opens the valves 25 above each container, thereby. filling the containers. The jets 29 permit the fluid within the containers to slowly drip down the inside of the tank. These streams spread out a few feet below each container so that the entire inside surface of the tank is covered by a continuous film of lubricant.

The advantage of this construction is that when the temperature and Wind is such that ice would start to form upon one side of the container, the operator may fill the containers on that side of the holder, thereby adding glycerine and oil to that portion of the, holder surface to counteract the possible formation of ice at this point. The glycerine and oil so added will prevent the formation of ice over the full length of the tank, whereas with the former method of directly lubricating the packing strip, formation of ice is prevented only upon that portion of the tank through which the diaphragm actually reciprocates.

In order to easily supply the correct glycerine mixture, I have provided means associated with the pump 23 whereby oil, water and glycerine mixtures of various proportions may be supplied to the tank 24. This is desirable because in cold weather the proportion of glycerine must be increased in order to compensate for the water of condensation which is absorbed by the glycerine after it has run down the inside of the cylinder. To do this, I have provided a tank 30 having a motor-driven agitating blade 3| therein, which tank is open at the top so that it may be conveniently charged. A pipe 32 extends from the bottom of-the tank 30 to the tank 24 and a valve 33 is inserted in the pipe 32 to operatively drain the tank 30 into the tank 24.

In the operation of the device, predetermined amounts of glycerine and oil and sometimes water are placed in the tank 30 and the agitator 3| started, which in a few minutes mixes the oil, water and glycerine to a fluid of uniform density. This fluid is then drawn off into the tank 24 by opening the valve 33, from which tank it is pumped to the header 2| and is thereby available to supply the containers 25.

Among the many advantages arising from the use of my improved lubricating device, it may be well to mention the principal advantage results in providing a series of small dripping oil streams on the inside surface of the tank aroundlthe top thereof so that the spreading of the oil streams by capillary action on the inside of the tank forms a continuous film of lubricant around the inside of the tank.

A further advantage results because this can be accomplished entirely from the outside of the tank and, for this reason, is much safer than other methods of lubrication which all required the workers to be present inside of the tank. It will, of course, be apparent that in any gas holder of this type a certain amount of leakage is unavoidable and this contaminates the air above the diaphragm so that it is both poisonous and highly explosive. This requires the workers to wear gas masks at all times and even such masks are oftentimes inadequate to prevent asphyxiation of the workers. With my improved device, the workers at no time enter the space ,above the diaphragm, and thus this hazard is eliminated.

Still a further advantage of my construction is that the lubricant may be selectively applied where needed around the diaphragm without flooding the remainder of the accumulator.

Some changes may be made in the'arrangement, construction and combination of the various parts of my improved device without departing from the spirit of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims such changes as may reasonably be included within the scope thereof.

I claim as my invention: Y

1. A device for lubricating the inside wall of a gas holder, said holder comprising a cylinder having a diaphragm reciprocally mounted therein, the periphery of which slides up and down along the inside wall of said cylinder, comprising, a header encircling the upper portion of said cylinder, means for supplying lubricating fluid under pressure to said header, a plurality of individual containers closely coupled to said header by short conduits, a selectively operable valve in each of said conduits by means of which said containers may be individually filled with lubricant from said header, a drip jet associated with each of said containers through which the fluid in said containers is slowly drawn therefrom, and tubes conducting said fluid'from each of said jets through the adjacent wall of said cylinder and directing same to run down the inside wall of said cylinder, said streams of fluid spreading laterally along said inside wall to form a continuous film of lubricant over the entire circumference of said inside wall a short distance below the elevation of said tubes.

2. A device for lubricating the inside wall of a gas holder, said holder comprising a cylinder having a diaphragm reciprocally mounted therein, the periphery of which slides up and down along the inside wall of said cylinder,rcomprising, a header encircling the upper portion of said cylinder, means for supplying lubricating fluid under pressure to said header, a plurality of individual containers closely coupled to said header by short conduits, a manually operable valve in each of said conduits by means of which said containers may be individually filled with lubricating fluid from said header, a sight feed drip jet associated with each of said containers,

through which the fluid in said containers is' form a continuous film of lubricant over the entire inside circumference of said cylinder a short distance below the elevation of said tubes.

3. A device for lubricating the inside walls of a gas holder, said holder comprising, a cylinder having a diaphragm reciprocally mounted therein,the periphery of which slides up and down along the inside wall of said cylinder, comprising, a header encircling the upper portion of said cylinder, a lubricant tank, a mixing chamber associated with said tank having agitating means disposed within said mixing chamber, means for conducting fluid in said mixng chamber into sad tank, a pump adapted to draw fluid from said tank, a riser connected to the outlet of said pump, said riser extending upwardly where it is connected to said header so that the contents of said mixing chamber may be supplied under pressure to said header, a plurality of individual containers closely coupled to said header by short conduits, a manually operable valve in each of said conduits by means of which said containers may be individually filled with fluid from said header, a drip valve associated With each of said containers through which the fluid therein is slowly withdrawn from said containers, and tubes conducting the fluid from each of said drip valves through the adjacent wall of said cylinder and directing same to run down said inside wall, the said streams of fluid spreading laterally along the inside wall of said container to form a continuous film over the entire inside circumference of said cylinder a short distance below the elevation of said tubes.

4. The method of lubricating and preventing the formation of ice upon the inside wall of a gas holder, said accumulator having a diaphragm reciprocally mounted therein, the periphery oi which slides up and down along said inside wall,

comprising, directing a plurality of very small 

